Of all the days I've woken up feeling completely awful, yesterday takes the cake. I was literally bolted upright out of sleep by a stabbing pain in my sternum. Seriously, it felt kind of like being stabbed from the inside out. The pain faded quickly, but I was unable to get back to sleep. This was around 3:50 in the morning. Well, it didn't feel too bad as the time to go to work arrived, so I dressed and headed out. The only lingering problem was a pain in my right shoulder blade that kept sweeping over me in waves. It never lasted long, only around 5 seconds or so, and there was a lag time of about two or three minutes between each wave. Still, it was enough to concern me since I had dumped my bike and landed on that shoulder.
So, after debating with myself for about an hour, I called one of the nurses and asked them about it. They, in turn, made an appointment for me at 3pm. Ok, well, that's not really what I wanted to hear, but I was willing to go to it, just to set my mind at ease.
The rest of the day wasn't too bad. The pain seemed to go away if I took motrin, so I wasn't too worried. Then I have my doctor's appointment and Dr. Tobierre says that there is a possibility of a clot somewhere and that I had to go to the ER "right now."
I was not in the best of moods after hearing this. Anyway, I called the other IT guy and told him that I had been told to go to the ER right away. He said that he would cover for me, and I trundled off to Mt. Auburn Hospital. I got there around 3:40 or so. Around 5:30, they got me in to establish an IV, draw some blood, and get an EKG. Around 7 or so, I was finally brought in to a room and hooked up to the monitor. My blood pressure was good, I had a normal heart rhythm, my pulse was fine, and my blood oxygen content was consistently around 100%. All-in-all, I didn't feel like I had a clot anywhere.
Still, better safe than sorry, I supposed to myself. A chest x-ray will clear things up. I go in for the x-ray around 8 or so. It is shortly after this that the doctor comes in and tells me that the one blood test that acts as a clot indicator was elevated and that she wanted to send me for a chest CT. Son-of-a...
Now enters one of the worse periods of time I have ever faced. I cried. I said more prayers than I have in a long time. I just wanted someone to be with me, but, in an ER, it's always busy, so no one was there for more than a minute or two.
To top everything off, I had forgotten my cellphone at my apartment, so I couldn't call anyone. I tried to call Sam twice from one of the patient phones in the ER, but she didn't answer. I don't blame her, I don't answer calls from strange numbers either. But I couldn't call anyone. Either I didn't remember their cellphone number, or they were a long-distance call.
It was a piece of almost mind-numbing terror to think that something bad could have happened to me and no one important to me would have had a clue. I felt frighteningly alone.
They finally managed to get me into the CT scan around 9:45 or so. The test wasn't too long, and when I got back to my room, I felt a little better. At least they would be able to tell me what was going on. After another half-hour or so, the doctor finally was able to come in and tell me that the chest CT was clear and that there were no clots.
I cried again.
They released me with a prescription for motrin and sent me on my way.
Let's hope I don't have to repeat that experience for a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment